Tizen OS early-stage interface and apps examined (pictures)

We go hands-on with Tizen OS, running on a prototype Samsung phone. Here's what this Android-fighting interface looks like, and how it works.

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BARCELONA, Spain--Unlike Android, Tizen OS has no app tray -- the home screen itself shows all your apps. There's only one screen here, but the "1" at the top implies you'll be scrolling through several screens once you have more apps. This is an early build of Tizen, so anything is subject to change.

Here are the basic controls. There's a back button in the bottom right of the screen, and a context-sensitive key on the bottom left. In the gallery app you can see it gives you options like cropping or rotating, but the options change based on which app you're in. Again, this is similar to Android.

This is the settings menu, which reveals we're using Tizen OS 2.0. It feels quite sluggish, but this is still early software. The Samsung handset, meanwhile, is just called Reference Device, which gives little away.

Tizen is getting app developers on board to try to make tempting software. This one has a cool idea: streaming songs based on the weather in your location. If it's raining you get sad music, and so on. Tizen will need lots of apps if it wants to fight Android and Windows Phone.

A great idea here -- the Settings menu has a "frequently used" button, so if you're always turning Wi-Fi on and off, you can access those sorts of settings quickly. If you spend way too much time scrolling through settings hunting for the right onscreen switch, you'll understand the value of this feature.